The Mech Touch

Mechs defined the Age of Mechs.

Human civilization had reached the right conditions to introduce mechs and promote them on an enormous scale.

The technology, the demand and the surrounding infrastructure all happened to provide more than enough support to turn mechs into a galaxy-wide phenomenon.

Yet now that red humanity had entered the Age of Dawn, it was not quite certain whether mechs would remain dominant.

There were plenty of armchair theorists who claimed that warships would become dominant again or that infantry became the future due to the long-term effects of systematic cultivation.

Nobody could say for certain what could become red humanity's next premier war platform.

The mech industry insisted that mechs had too many advantages for people to abandon wholesale. They provided the right balance between power and practicality. The infrastructure centered around the development, production, repairs and recycling was not only extremely expansive, but had also reached an incredible degree of efficiency. That last reason alone ensured that mechs would be able to stick around for a long time. Even if other viable competitors existed, it was too hard to dislodge the advantages of an established player.

However, what if mechs in their current state failed to remain competitive in the long run?

Mech designers such as Ves could never afford to let that happen. Their entire careers were based around the mass proliferation of mechs. If their products became a lot less popular, then not many of them would be able to maintain their business presence!

This was why it was the solemn duty of all mech designers to constantly push mech development to a greater height.

Only through constant innovation and reimagination would the mech industry be able to keep its sole product category dominant in human society.

Low-ranking mech designers could forget about taking part in this collective mission. They still needed to learn the ropes of mech design and were far from ready to make contributions that could make a significant impact on the mech industry.

Ves was in a much better position to do this than many other Senior Mech Designers. That was not to say that every other Senior was inconsequential. People like Gloriana and Jovy Armalon had already made significant attainments in coming up with revolutionary design applications that could enrich mechs once their inventors became Masters.

These examples actually showed that Seniors faced an uphill battle when it came to popularizing good inventions. The mech industry frequently looked down on their innovations because they were only valid on their own works.

Ves was no exception in this regard. Even to this day, his iconic living mechs and his civilization-changing Carmine mechs still remained exclusive to his own works!

This was why the mechers and the fleeters assigned a permanent escort force to him, and it was also why hardly anyone else tried to imitate and further iterate on his solutions.

It was not because his competitors were unwilling to adopt living mechs, but they were unable to do without the secret support of the Red Kingdom!

Even if most mech designers remained blissfully unaware of the existence of the Red Kingdom, they still understood the common sense that only the design philosophies of Master Mech Designers became universally available.

Ves therefore continued to encounter hindrances when it came to popularizing his solutions, and thereby promote the evolution of mechs in his own way.

Not even the boundary-breaking mechs such as the Yellow Jacket line which received universal acclaim for its historic features could convince people that living mechs represented the future evolution of mechs.

Ves turned to Ketis, who knew more about living mechs than almost any other mech designer.

"What do you think about living mechs?" Ves suddenly asked.

The woman blinked. "I thought we were talking about what you intend to introduce with your seventh generation living mechs."

"We are, but I first want to hear your thoughts about the current state of my products. You happen to be able to be able to design living mechs by yourself, but you never embraced them as extensively as 1. Why are you okay with that? Is there stuff about living mechs that you do not believe in or find redundant?"

"Not as such." Ketis shook her head. "I think your sixth generation living mechs are definitely good. They wouldn't sell so well if they were inferior in performance. It is just... I want my works to be able to succeed in the mech market on their own merits. If I put more effort into adopting your design solutions, I may be able to sell more mechs, but it will be to your credit as opposed to mine. I do not believe I can lose to you purely in terms of designing swordsman mechs. This is my specialization and my passion. By constantly measuring up my work to your own, I can gain a clearer idea whether my products are good enough. So far, I am not too dissatisfied with the state of the Monster Slayer and the Stormblade Samurai Mark II."

In other words, Ketis did not dislike his living mechs or thought that they were bad. She just sought to maintain a certain degree of distance from his works in order to build up her own brand.

That was completely fine. He would do the same if he was in her place. She could never become a market leader if he or she kept reproducing the solutions of a better mech designer.

The only exception to this rule were direct disciples. Ves considered Alexa Streon to be one of his direct successors, which meant that she would not have that many issues if she replicated all of the features of his latest generation of living mechs.

Of course, Ves had to teach her all of the tricks of the trade in order for her to be able to

Replicate his latest works.

Ves still thought that his influence over the mech industry and red humanity as a whole was still too limited in scope.

Many of his problems could easily be solved if he managed to realize his design philosophy and finally advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer, but that was not realistic in the short term.

Ves therefore had to find an alternative means to increase the value of his living mechs and make them more valued and indispensable to society.

"One of the ideas that I came up with as I was thinking on how to develop the D-Chamber is what exactly happens to living mechs when they sustain too much damage and have to be scrapped for whatever reason. There are also old and outdated living mechs that get sold to salvaging companies in order to get recycled.

Ketis tilted her head after hearing that. "What are you on about this time?"

"Think about it. Don't you think that it is a waste of living mechs, especially the more recent third order living mechs, to die simply because people have better use for their materials?"

"That is pretty normal, Ves. I do not think that people are callous enough to ignore the existence of the living personalities inside the machines, but... what can they do with it? Upgrade them to a newer version? What if your LMC has yet to do so, as is the case with some of your older classics such as the Valkyrie Redeemer? As for reconstructing the old and damaged machines, that is possible for the personalised machines of up-and-coming heroes, but it cannot be done on a large scale. The effort is too wasteful and too heavy on the logistics. We are at war. We are also suffering from extensive resource shortages. We cannot waste serviceable mech-grade alloys when they can still be used to produce more modern machines."

Ves nodded in agreement. "I do not object to your descriptions. As sad as it is, not many people at the top think it is worthwhile to reconstruct heavily damaged machines, even if they have evolved into third order living mechs that have years of experience under their belt. Our industries are much more efficient at mass producing new mechs than repairing damaged ones on a larger scale. This is why I have been thinking about how to improve how much can be salvaged from a living mech when it has reached the end of service life for whatever reason."

His former student could already deduce what he had in mind based on the direction of

His talks.

"Let me guess. You want to make it easier for people to 'recycle' the spiritual foundation of your living mechs."

"Yes. Living mechs and particularly third order living mechs are treasures in my eyes.

Why would you throw it all away? One of the problems with taking them out of existing mech frames is that they are intangible and damn hard to work with on a material level. This is why I have decided to install hyper keystones underneath the cockpits of all of my living mechs. These keystones are essentially hyper materials that can absorb and contain most of the spiritual foundation of a living mech."

"Is that even possible, Ves?"

"Not in the past, but this is the Age of Dawn. My understanding of hyper technology and E-technology has improved. Better hyper materials have also become available. One that is suitable to serve as a keystone might not be able to maintain a 100 percent retention rate, but I am already happy if it can preserve 50 percent of the spiritual foundation of a third order living mech."

He projected the draft design of the Null Project and zoomed in on the cockpit. Just as Ves described, the underside of the cockpit seat contained a keystone that could potentially contain the spiritual foundation of a third order living mech if there was no other way for the mech frame to remain operational.

Ves designed it so that the mech pilot could easily slide open a mechanical lock and take out the briefcase-sized keystone before evacuating from the cockpit.

While the keystone was rather heavy, Ves made sure to make it easy to grip by including

A handle. Ketis actually looked a bit impressed at this user-friendly implementation.

"If you can upgrade your living mechs to make this work, then I can definitely see this work. Will you make it so that you can effectively 'revive' third order living mechs by sliding them in the same slot under the cockpit seat of a freshly produced machine?" "Yes, so long as they belong to the same mech line!" Ves replied. "This is a great way to preserve older and much more developed third order living mechs. They are too precious for people to discard just because it is costlier to scrap a heavily damaged mech than to restore it. There will be a degree of loss, but the most important bits will still be preserved. I will make sure to slightly change the dimensions of the hyper

Keystones and the slots so that mismatching will not occur."

Ketis thought a bit more about this feature.

"Not everyone will bother to pay for a new living mech just to host these hyper

Keystones. What if they do not want to acquire a new Valkyrie Redeemer to replace the one that has just gotten blasted apart? What if the LMC has no longer decided to update

Old mech lines such as the Aurora Titan and the Crystal Lord? Will the hyper keystones from those extinct lines become worthless?"

Ves shook his head. "Nope. Think about it, Ketis. The developed spiritual foundations of

These living mechs can still be repurposed. This is why I originally came up with this

Idea. I think that it would be great if they can be used as key ingredients in the process

Of crafting powerful artifacts."

"Artifacts? That..." "Didn't you come up with the idea of Beastcasting a while ago? You can treat this as a

Similar idea! High-level artifacts can be distinguished from low-level ones by possessing their own form of life and intelligence. It is normally very hard to create them because most methods involve imbuing them with an existing soul."

"That is not what I have read." Ketis said.

Ves smiled. "You are right. There are exceptions. One of the best ways to circumvent this

Requirement is by creating a masterwork or higher. That seems to birth a rudimentary soul or boost the power of an existing one. Other than that, most traditional craftsmen can only make do with repurposing existing souls, especially if they want to ramp up production. Instead of supplying them with unethical human souls or downright hostile alien souls, we can instead supply the increasing number of traditional workshops with more powerful and more cooperative spiritual foundations of third order living mechs!" If this could work, then Ves could increase the value of his seventh generation living

Mechs by making them useful even if they had reached the end of their service life! As long as their hyper keystones remained intact, they could be pulled out so that the valuable spiritual remnant contained within could be used to enable the production of high-level artifacts by adequately skilled traditional craftsmen!

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